Beware of This Recurring Free Laptop Scam!

There are many online competitions and promotions, and we notice social media promotions for laptops, etc., especially targeting students. But unfortunately, there are many online scams in the guise of such promotions. This is our investigation related to such an online scam for free laptop giveaways for students.

Social Media Posts

We noticed viral messages titled “Students Laptop Scheme-2024” on Facebook and WhatsApp, claiming that a scheme is available to offer free laptops to all students who cannot afford a laptop & the student who needs a laptop for educational purposes. The message says that this year, the plan is to giveaways as many as 960,000 free laptops worldwide.

The viral message, which was shared along with a link to apply and avail of this offer, can be seen below.

"The Applications for the Students Laptop Scheme 2024 Is Available

This scheme is open to all students who, for financial reasons, are not in a position to purchase a laptop of their own and are in need of a laptop at their level of education.

In 2024, Over 960,000 students will be given free laptops to enhance their learning

Application has begun, and students that have applied have started getting their laptops

Register and apply here
https://br.ke/Students-FREE-LAPT0P"

The same message is going viral on WhatsApp in various parts of the world, and the same message was, in fact, shared in 2023 as well.

Facebook | Archived

Fact Check

We searched the mainstream media to determine whether such worldwide free laptop giveaway programs were announced as claimed by the social media posts. However, we were not able to find such laptop donation programs.

After that, we directed our attention to the URL of the link. The shortened URL had concealed the final target URL, a ploy frequently used by scammers. The actual website address related to this link is https://students.daytoday.cloud/, and most updated web security applications would pop up a notice that the link directs to a dangerous & malicious website, as we also found out.

Therefore, we request users follow safety tips while browsing online and have an updated antivirus and firewall software installed on devices to protect against such malicious attempts.

We also suggest you not proceed any further, but only to find out more about this scam, we proceeded to the malicious website.

The first form requests the name, education level, required laptop brand, and age range. After entering these details, confirmation of the name was requested, and there were fake testimonies on that page.

After that, a display is shown which says that approval has been granted to receive a free laptop. However, like many other scams, the final step requests to share the link with many other WhatsApp contacts/groups.

A Whois lookup of the domain shows that the registrant country was Iceland in January 2022 and is set to expire in January 2024.

Here is Factcrescendo Sri Lanka's fact check on a similar scam that went viral in 2022 in Sri Lanka, claiming to be a Free laptop offered by the government.

Free laptop giveaway schemes by the Indian government also went viral recently, and here is the Indian Press Information Bureau's clarification on fake viral messages.

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Conclusion

The viral text message claiming a free worldwide laptop giveaway in 2023/24 is false. Unfortunately, similar fake campaigns have been shared many times and were viral in 2021/22 as well. We request social media users be highly cautious in dealing with such scammers along with links to malicious websites, which can put your sensitive information at risk and pose threats to your electronic devices.